Re: Win XP Home Edition w/ PVR 250 - do I need XP Media Center Edition???

From: jquiet (tester,testingplace,net)
Date: 04/27/04 

Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 19:45:47 -0700

For some more MCE info see:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/mediacenter/evaluation/tours/default.asp

What you would be missing is the best integrated PC PVR on the market. It
has a nice simple remote, nice GUI. More and more third party applications
coming out all the time. Home automation is in the works, VBox just
announced some high definition cards. Cheaper "set-top" boxes called media
center extenders are coming out soon so you can distribute all your media
throughtought the house. Portable Media Centers are also on their way.

It should be a big summer/Christmas for MCE. Does it have to be a Dell?
There are quite a few other MCE machines that don't rely on All-in-Wonder.

"Rob" <robo111@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:cfae55fa.0404260759.d909137@posting.google.com...
> I am trying to purchase a media center computer from Dell. Their only
> media center offering is to have Windows MCE 2004 with an ATI All In
> Wonder 9000 card. I have read quite a bit, enough to know that the
> All In Wonder cards are not ideal. I was going to go with an ATI
> Radeon 9800 Pro with a PVR-250 Capture card bought after-market. But
> Dell won't sell me the WMCE 2004 OS without the All In Wonder card!
>
> If so, am I better off going with just Windows XP 2004 and then having
> the two-card set-up? I have been contemplating ordering their 8300
> system (not the media center version) with the better Radeon 9800 Pro
> and adding the PVR 250... only thing I would be missing there would be
> that I would have XP Home Edition and not XP Media Center Edition.
> I'm not really sure what I would be missing out on here once I added
> the WinTV PVR-250 and it's software. Any insight into what I might be
> missing out on?
>
> Thanks for your assistance!!!
> Rob

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Media Center - pro or con ?
    ... The MCE specs require a hardware MPEG encoder and of course an MCE driver. ... Tuner cards are generally $50 to $150. ... genuine Microsoft Media Center remote control, and a Media Center compatible TV tuner. ...
    (comp.sys.laptops)
  • Re: Media Center
    ... The MCE specs require a hardware MPEG encoder and of course an MCE driver. ... Tuner cards are generally $50 to $150. ... genuine Microsoft Media Center remote control, and a Media Center compatible TV tuner. ...
    (comp.sys.laptops)
  • Re: Digital TV card support
    ... The EmperoarTV program supports the PVR-500. ... available in the UK is the PVR-500 MCE ... to run it although that would also be true of any other cards so the ... When running under Media Center you can use the included IR transmitter ...
    (comp.os.os2.multimedia)
  • Re: Disable mouse-over interface?
    ... Windows XP Media Center Edition ... Can the mouse-over interface that appears every time the mouse moves over MCE in windowed mode be disabled or at least changed so it only appears if I make MCE the active application by clicking? ... Media Player does) instead of operating the system volume? ... Newer cards with the MCE 2005 logo should switch pretty quickly. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.mediacenter)
  • Re: MCE - Will it benefit me?
    ... You can't buy the Media Centre component seperately and add it to XP Pro. ... XP MCE is missing several features from XP Pro. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.mediacenter)